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2013.10.11 - A Tale of Two Karas - Scene 1
There's an alarm in Titan's Tower, it flashes across all TV screens, all computer monitors, and blares out of every electronic device even remotely hooked into the main LAN/WAN/AnythingElse of the Titan's network. It's an alarm that's never used in their practice drills, and which only has one meaning: Titan in danger. It's broadcasting the location of Supergirl's communicator to all who can receive such, from Titan's Tower to the Watchtower, along with wildly-fluctuating and unstable vital signs. If that wasn't enough to draw in those from all over the world, the soul-shattering scream might be. Powered by Kryptonian lungs, it can be heard for tens of miles around, possibly even farther through the water, the natural sound conductor. It disrupts wildlife, causes birds and deer to flee in a panic, whales and fish to writhe in sudden sonic pain, and shatters any glass within a couple miles of the 'impact zone'. The scene of the disturbance is a mostly-idyllic, rocky coastline. Large, body-sized stones form a break between the beach and a coastal road, with the rocks turning into sand, then grass on the other side of the divided interstate, a bit south of New York City proper. There's a group of men in futuristic black armor, kind of reminiscent of what one would have seen during the invasion of Zod by his warriors. They're holding some kind of guns, which are joined to the backs of their armors by some sort of thin tube where the 'clip' would go on modern firearms. They don't look like they shoot bullets, having some kind of... antenna-dish on the end of them. Except for the one which has some sort of shiny black rock on the end of his gun. They're all wearing helmets, and those guns are pointed at a kneeling Supergirl. ...And the standing Supergirl. Who currently had the front of the kneeling Supergirl's cape in a fist. And was dressed just like Kara Zor-El from Krypton, except that her outfit was black with silver highlights, rather than blue with red. The 'original' Supergirl was looking just as startled as the men were, or as startled as men can look who have their faces covered, men who were calling themselves the Humanity First movement. And they had decided to take it upon themselves to drive ALL aliens, and by extension their wars, from the planet in the wake of the last invasion that had taken out large parts of New York. "W-What did it do? It was supposed to kill her!" The man holding the black-kryptonite 'gun' says, his voice distorted by the artificial modulator built into his helmet. Another of the half-dozen shakes his head. "I don't know! She's supposed to have some kind of allergy to it!" The standing Kara, still holding onto her weakened original copy, red-and-blue Supergirl weakly struggling against the restraining hand with wide, confused, and slightly horrified eyes, turns a rather mischevious, one might even say MALICIOUS, smirk in the direction of the men. "You should have done your homework better, idiots. You're thinking of the /green/ rock." she says, even as her eyes start to glow a dangerous red. When the alarms went off, Mend was in New York. Which is lucky, as that put her closer to the situation than the Tower would have. And even more luckily, she had her jet pack with her. She lifts off from the roof of StarkTech where, no doubt, she was mixed up in some kind of project, streaking south towards the scene. << Kara? >> she says into her comlink. << Can you hear me? >> It's clear Kara's in trouble and needs backup...and Mend has to help, even if it's likely to result in her getting hurt. One who is perfectly alert at the sound of a Kryptonian's scream is Ursa, not knowing any Kryptonians aside from Superman whom she only heard about, and her own son, she tests the limits of her speed as she cuts away from the research she was doing to fly as fast as she can towards the source of the scream. A streak in the skies, only those used to seeing such high speed motion might make a better estimation of who she is, as in practically no time, she is hovering in the air, looking somewhat surprised to find not Superman nor her son, but rather a Kryptonian she has yet to hear about. A girl. Looking from Kara in blue to the Kara in black, she notes the one consistant thing between the two is the hated emblem of the House of El. Frowning, she turns her eyes on the men with the weapon, and not knowing what to make of the situation she merely raises her voice commandingly, "who is responsible for stealing a pained cry out of a Kryptonian? Your doom is at hand." And so, it never fails. Right in the middle of a meal... nevermind that Heather seems to never really stop eating. Anyhow, she was out and about, enjoying a dish of lasagna at a local mom & pop type place when her phone alerted her. immediately she called in. "Huh? Supergirl?" she shook her head and asked, "well I can drive, but my little Priuss isn't very fast. I would love a lift if anyone can spare the time. Otherwise I will converge at best speed. Activating my gps homing signal... will be driving until or unless someone shows up." and then it was... pay the bill, get doggybag, and push the Heathermobile for all it is worth... 'Chris', as Lor-Zod goes by in his civilian clothes, wasn't expecting trouble today, having instead been playing a game of chess with an old human in Central Park. A moment after the scream, however, his opponent looks over to find just an empty seat. He's Zenith, by that point, his human clothes left behind, and is breaking the sound barrier over Liberty Island. He comes to a sudden stop, near Ursa, hovering as he takes in the scene in confusion. "What in Poseidon's name was that?" "Quiet, Torin. Stay here with the troops, I'm going to check it out." "As you wish, Tempest." He had been training with his men, a small exercise intended to teach the recruits battle strategy and tactics against flying enemies, or boats at the surface of the water. However, when the kryptonian scream rang out, Garth left his troops in command of his second and took off across the waves, leaping out of the water like a dolphin with a jet pack. Just as he reaches the shore, he leaps out of the water, rising several feet into the air -- and using a waterspout for a little more air, since not every atlantean has the jumping power of their king -- before he flips once and lands, crouched on the ground only a few feet from the growing group. "Well, this looks... Confusing," Tempest eyes Evil Kara for a moment, noting the glowing eyes, Good Kara's cape clamped in her hand, and the black-clad group in front of her. Without hesitation, he whips his hand in an half-circle through the air, an unnatural wave flowing out of the ocean to arc around him and slam into the side of the Human First group, attepting to shove them all out of the way with the force of the wave... And then promptly freeze them in the very same water. They're lookin' awfully suspicious after all. "Well at least she's wearing black. No chance of a wacky mix-up as we all try to figure out the real one from the fake one... Silver linings, am I right?" Kaydin was in the ocean, enjoying being back into the sea when the sound came. Hearing the scream he swims towards it at the high speed and soon enough he is on the beach with his sword drawn and the scene before him. At first he holds his breath before reaching to a satchel and pulls out a clear facemask and putting it on. "I dont normally meddle in Dry affairs but I wont stand by when there is someone hurt." He says as he holds his sword towards the ones with the guns. When Tempest came, Kaydin bows his head to Tempest, speaking in an unknown language to him before his gaze returns to the black garbed people. Wonder Girl had just gotten into the shower and gotten her hair all sudsy when she heard her communicator beep-beeping. "...Never fails. Never FRICKING fails." A short time later she has hastily rinsed out her hair, tossed on her costume with only a cursory attempt at drying herself, and is still hopping and wiggling into her heans when she calls out, "COURTNEY, I'M HEADING OUT!" and leaps out a window. At least she can air-dry her hair a bit on the way to the scene of the trouble. Hearing that Heather needs a lift, she swings by while trying to get more info on what's going on. "I heard a scream and also my communicator. Who is in trouble exactly?" she calls out as she descends on Heather's location, ready to scoop up the other girl and carry her. Her hair didn't dry as much as she had hoped it would even by the time she gets herself and the other Titans member to the site. Iron Patriot says, "Two of them?!" the pilot said with shock as his eyes stared upon a monitor screen. When he took the gig as Iron Patriot it came with a large amount of unexpected monitor duty. Still seeing the sight of two Supergirls was troubling. Knowing this day would come the pilot left his chair and grabbed a simple looking device. Fury had a few of them. And the Patriot had a few of his own. They didn't look like much, a silver button on a black case, with a dial around the button. Their eyes went back to the screen and they adjusted the dial all the way in one direction. "I will need you," they said to the box. Walking up to the armor they suited in and slipped the black case into part of the arm that was crafted for it. Eventually the device would have been built in, but there wasn't time ofr that. Clinks and clanks went off in the room and they smiled as the armor went on. At one point the Iron Patriot's future was in question thanks to the Hulk. Those worries were dead. Like always the old system booted up: Laser Mounted Defense: Online. Power Levels: 100 All Systems: Online. Pushing off and out of his hiding place in Metropolis Patriot pushed it hard heading out to Titans tower. "You were built to save the world. Show me you can do it," they said silently like a prayer or mantra. When arriving there the Patriot took stock. Many of the faces were known and many were not. One person made them smile wide underneath the mask. A second sight caused his sights to zoom in. Lor-Zod's face was examined. "Scan," Patriot said. The physiology of the Kryptonian fed across a screen. A single thought ran through their mind. Ripping their gaze away rom the young Kryptonian they stared at the two Supergirls. Today was going to be intersting." Pyre, princess of the Fire-Planet and the Living Natures of Fire, has been kind of hanging out where she thinks she might be safe -- in Titans Tower -- following the attack on her by a giant robo-drone thing. But when the alert goes out, she quickly dons her not-exactly-skin-tight padded thermal-suit that keeps her warm even in the hostile coldness of Earth that has become only more hostile as autumn has kicked in, puts a big pink scarf covered in purple dragons around her neck (and the entire lower-half of her face because cold) and also some pink ear muffs also with purple dragons. So equipped, she then flies out into the cold air and heads towards where her communicator and the super computer on her forearm are indicating the distres ssignal is coming from. She does not arrive as quickly as SOME PEOPLE, since her top speed is only like 280 mph normally, but even pushing herself beyond her limits to almost 600 mph, she arrives only after most of the others have -- except for Wonder Girl and Heather because they are sloooooow and also had to take a detour. "Hoh!" the red-head calls out in surprise when she looks at those assembled -- the two Karas in particular. "Karkel!" she calls out as she looks at the bracer-like super computer. "Yes, your majesty?" the A.I. responds. "Has Pyre cross-over to Sitcom Zone or is so-so serious?" "Your planar location appears not to have changed. I detect unusual radioactivity in the vicinity, particularly in the device or weapon being carried by that man down there. Based on my analysis of Earth media, the design of the equipment matches members of the 'Humanity First' group." Pyre scowls. "Humanity First?" "Yes, your highness." "No. Humanity twenty-third at mostest! Pyre no has forgiving!" She prepares to attack but then there is water and ice and she does not respond well to ice like at all, so she instead heads for Supergirl and Supergirl to protect the two nearly-invulnerable fellow aliens. Since Pyre has not yet met Supergirl's 'big sister' she makes the logical assumption. "No has worry, Supergirl and Power Girl. Pyre protect both sun-head girls!" From the safety of behind the two people she's protecting because ice. Kara's communicator goes off, and she lets go of Kara's (boy, that's going to get confusing fast!) wrist to reach for it. Just as quickly, the Kara in black reaches down and covers the original's hand with her own, without even looking. "Ah, ah, ah!" She chides gently, playfully, even as she squeezes, forcing the one on her knees to crush her communicator, causing the distress signal to glitch out suddenly. Mend would not be receiving a reply THAT way! "Damn, another one! Blast her, too!" The apparent leader, the one with the kryptonite-ray, points up at the arrival of Ursa. But he doesn't point HIS gun, since it seems to just multiply their foes rather than murder them. Three of the other men point their guns in the flying pair's (Ursa and Zenith) direction and pull the triggers. Nothing happens, at least nothing anyone normal can see, or HEAR. But Ursa and Lor-Zod are getting slammed with supersonic audio attacks from the rifles, directionally-focused, and Hell on Earth for anyone with super-hearing, causing pain and disorientation. ...Not so much for anyone without. They don't even spot the aquatic male leaping out and hitting them with water until he's, well, hitting them with water. With a collective, garbled 'WHOOOOOA!' they go tumbling over, and then are frozen in place! Just in time as the Kara in black unleashes heat vision at them, narrowly missing creating several piles of ash where humans used to be. Meanwhile, in an apartment in Metropolis... Courtney Whitmore lifts her head off the mattress of the bed she was currently sprawled across and was, until a second ago, sleeping on. "Mmmmwuh?" She blinks blearily around, but spies nothing except an open window through the doorway leading to the livingroom and the sound of running water from one of the bathrooms. She sits up, rubbing her eyes, then looks around again, hair all messed up from tossing and turning. "...Cassie?" Back at the site... "Tch," she cuts her eyes towards Tempest as he interferes, then at the others as they arrive in turn. "Good, handle those pathetic humans while I beat some sense into the goody-two-shoes here." One Kara lifts the other into the air, despite her struggling, the one in blue-and-red obviously either drained of strength or somehow just a lot weaker than her counterpart, by the cloth around her neck. "It's just shame I don't if killing her would end my existence, too. Such a spineless little coward!" Rearing back a fist, the one in black and silver aims a ferocious punch at the one she's holding! Talking so casually to Pyre as she does so, "I think you're a little confused, Princess. THIS one is just a fake!" << Incoming, airborne. And I think it's Supergirl. But she's not responding to coms. >> Mend's homing in at first on the tracker in Kara's com. She's coming in pretty fast...but her pretty fast is enough slower than Cassie's that they'll probably arrive at about the same time. << Multiple Kryptonians. Joy. >> She's not yet in a position to attack, but they might well see her coming in. Ursa looks aside at Lor-Zod when he arrives almost as quickly as she did, hovering not far from her, "good, prompt response, and you are well." Her eyes, however, only glimpse at her son briefly, for the most part keeping her attention on the two Kryptonian girls below, seemingly copies of one another, and the group of weapon carrying humans, as well as a slew of heroes arriving on scene and some who even take action without knowing what happened. "Sloppy," she comments to Lor-Zod more then anyone else at their reaction. "You aim weapons at me? Lor-Zod...exhale," Ursa instructs while blowing out a gale force wind at those taking aim at her. If she manages to hit them and cast the weapons away from their grasps, all is well, but even if she's late. She has been exposed to such weaponry by Lex Luthor, and while this may be a much more refined variation, she shows an incredible endurance to pain as she remains hovering as if nothing happened, still blowing that powerful wind a while longer. In truth, the effect would be quite debilitating, and if prolonged, she's sure to plummet, but on the exterior, she almost seems unaffected. Unfortunately, for her trouble, she can't focus on anything else aside from coping with the violent offense on her ears, and producing her own breathing attack, so at least for the time being she remains more or less stationary at the same spot in the air. She doesn't even look aside at her son, who she knows would be much more heavily affected then hers, but then that's why her focus is to blast those weapons out of the humans' arms with the powerful wind. Okay, a ride! "Thanks Cass!" announces Heathrr after parking, locking, and securing her prized hybrid car. "didn't hqve a costume on me, guess bluejeans and teeshirt will have to do." and then her hands link with Cassie's and awaaayyy they go! Upon arribing on site, Heather widens her eyes and then adds in a bit of dry wit, "at least you're getting a halitosis blowdry for your hair. I love the scent of that shampoo by the way, you'll have to tell me which brand it is later! and then she lets go, dropping the last few feet to the ground and over the gusting wind, yells into her comm, "anyone else seeing double?" Zenith has been operating on his own and with the Young Allies rather than with his mother for months now, but his training with her is still there. When she gives an order, he immediately follows it, exhaling a strong wind at their attackers. Unfortunately, unlike his mother, he doesn't have the experience or pain tolerance, and the exhaled wind turns into a pained yelp as the sound waves hit him, instinctively covering his ears. Oh hey. Surprise, surprise. Black-Clad Kara is evil. Didn't see that coming. "Yeah, I'm going to have to vote no on that one," Tempest replies, purple energy glowing from his eyes as he fires an eldritch bolt from his fist towards Evil Kara. No time to refine the magic into a recognizable effect, he simply tries to output as much mystical energy as possible before shouting a quick command to Kaydin in Atlantean. Directly afterwards he starts to rush Evil Kara, puple eyes aglow while telepathically he reaches out to everyone who's not a Humanity First flunkie or a black-clad, kryptonite-enduced, evil clone and link them together in one large Martian-esque mind meld. A nod came from Kaydin as he begins moving for Kara and try and pull the blue and red blonde away from the black, seeming to be working in combination with Tempest. One arm moves to wrap about Kara while the other, the one with the sword tries to slash down on the hand or cloth that the hand is holding in an attempt to pry the weakened woman away from the one in black. When he feels the telepathic connection he doesnt fight it, letting Tempest be able to talk with him telepathically. "I don't think I got to wash it all out," she replies grumpily. Upon arrival and seeing two Supergirls, she kind of groooans. She wanted to be a hero so much at first--well, she still does. But now things like this just give her headaches. As a huge tidal wave comes surging up out of the water and then freezes around the people in armor who are shooting up at some other people in the air who are breathing tornadoes at the bad guys below, while two Supergirls seem to be fighting, Pyre is standing nearby, and she feels someone trying to get into her head while weird energy beams are shot at one of the two Supergirls Ugh. She doesn't want to assume anything here. There's just too much going on. But she does fly at the two Karas after dropping off Heather, and tries to smash the ground with her fist so hard the terrain ripple outwards in rings and cracks, tossing all those at the epicenter away. She doesn't know what's going on. Maybe killing or hurting the evil-looking one will harm the 'good' Kara too. Maybe it won't do anything. Maybe this is the good one and she's being mind-controlled. Maybe she's a clone and is just misguided. WHO THE FUCK KNOWS!? Not her, so she's trying to stop the fighting the best way she knows how. By attacking. "EVERYONE STAY WHERE YOU ARE UNTIL WE FIGURE OUT WHAT'S GOING ON!" she yells. She doesn't know how to use this mind link think, but she's not resisting it at the moment no matter how suspicious of it she is. It was totally unsolicited telepathy of some kind, she doesn't know the person running it, and for all she knows this is connected to how there's two Karas here. But she leaves it for now. She also super-eyeballs Kaydin if he succeeded in getting 'good' Kara away. All these... Water people. Are they connected to that chick from a few weeks ago who attacked the fishing boat with her water sharks? She still wasn't quite sure who she was, or what her connection was to the giant water funnel that had such a personal interested in tearing Wonder Girl to pieces, but she's not dismissing the possibility these things are all connected. "I'm Wonder Girl, and Supergirl is my team mate on the Titans and my friend. Other Titans are here, and we are NOT letting people shoot our team mates." she calls out, once she hopefully as everyone's attention -- frozen baddies notwithstanding. She looks at the dark-dressed Supergirl when she says this, along with the others she sweeps her eyes over. "With that out of the way, question #1: What the hell is going on?" The Iron Patriot shakes his head the feeling someone tries snaking into their mind. Not exactly formally trained in psyhics but having been around them, they shook it off. To their delight the familiar snaking feeling went away. Making sure the device was secure Patriot spoke, "You can relent now and I will take you into the Government. No blood needs to be shed," their voice was robotic thanks to voice modulators. If people wanted to zero in and figure it out, they would need a trained ear and super hearing. People were trying to strike the second Supergirl, but diplomacy worked sometimes. So they were going to give the woman a chance before striking. Waiting for a response Patriot bided their time.If the renegade, creation, clone, whatever she was wanted a fight she would get one. "If you don't then you will be taken in by force. The choice is yours." Wonder Girl had the right idea just wasn't firm enough in their mind. Despite Pyre's efforts of late to be friendly towards the people of Earth, there's only one person on this planet whom Pyre really considers to be her friend. Sure, she'd like more friends. But it's Kara she met first. It's Kara who has been understanding even of Pyre's spoiled and -- honestly -- rude treatment of other people. Maybe they're dirty commoners and smell bad because they don't bathe in star-hot plasma to destroy all traces of filth. But they have feelings too, hopes and thoughts and dreams, and a different in culture or social standing has becoming increasingly unimportant to the alien princess. She knows Kara as well as one can know someone else in the time they've been around each other. And there's one thing she knows well about Kara. She tries to place a super-heated hand on the black-wearing Supergirl's arm after she punches the blue-wearing Supergirl. She doesn't have super reflexes or super speed, so she couldn't react to stop the punch itself -- even if she had the strength to do so. But tries to forestall further punching. "No," she says clearly. "Pyre knows Supergirl." As wind blasts and tidal waves that turn into ice surge all around, Pyre looks determinedly at this 'other' Supergirl with her red eyes, and says, "Supergirl is not a bully who beats weakened enemies. YOU are the fake." Holy crap did Pyre's translator start working again!? But before she can do anything else -- like maybe get smacked aside -- energy beams start zipping through the air, and she reflexively flies up and back out of the line of fire -- just in time to avoid Wonder Girl smashing down and trying to stop the fighting. Pyre shields her face with her arms to keep the dirst and dust and sand and whatever else from getting into her eyes, and while she's doing that she takes note of some sort of weirdness going on with her thoughts and head. She doesn't really understand it, so she doesn't pay attention to it at the moment. She may be very surprised if she suddenly starts hearing people talking in her head. When some man in armor zips in while Wonder Girl is trying to get everyone's attention, Pyre puts her hands to both sides of her head. There's so many people here. She's confused and her head hurts. "Noh-meh-daa..." she mutters in Fire-Tongue. Untranslatable culture-specific phrases have returned, and with them her broken English. A glance over her shoulder causes her to spot Mend arriving. Her confusion melts away. Wonder Girl, Supergirl, Heather, Mend, and Pyre herself are all here. The Titans are assembled. Whatever is happening... They can take care of it. "Pyre is agree. Fighting no has good!" And she makes sure the flames that currently trace her body and the heat that radiates from her do not diminish. She thinks humans find glowing auras impressive. Ursa's plan blows (hee), but only because the men are locked in ice along with their weapons. They probably would have been sent flying along with their ear-splitting arsenal Tempest hadn't struck first, as it is, they just kind of topple over in the middle of their ice-sculpture and kind of... don't move. Blowing away three men and their rifles would have been child's play, but they now weigh several tons in their new prison. Though the ice cracks once it's knocked over. And somewhere among the four men with sonic blasters, one of them was able to pull the trigger, and the ice around him begins to crack even more rapidly than the wind-knocking-over did! At superspeed, the black-clad Kryptonian lands her punch right about the same time the Eldritch bolt lands and Kaydin makes his grab for the weaker of the Supergirl's. The force of the blow slams the blue-clad blonde's body into the Atlantean roughly, with enough strength to send them both tumbling back buns-over-teakettle for almost a quarter of a mile! When she finally stops rolling over and over and OVER with the force of the blow along the ground, Supergirl begins to shakily push herself up to her hands and knees, head bowed, breath coming in ragged gasps. "Nggggh..." "Nggggh!" The one dubbed 'Evil' Kara grits out as she backs up a step and hits a knee, just a moment after Pyre had let go of her arm and before she could retorn to the alien princess, a hand to her chest as magical energies streak out around her in the aftermath of the mystical attack. "Not bad, handsome. But when you decide to get rough with a girl..." Right about then, an artificial earthquake happens! Luckily for her, the doppleganger could fly, so as she goes soaring up in the air due to the sudden upheaval of the ground, she... stays there. And then blinks out of existence as she moves at super-speed, reappearing right behind Tempest. "...make sure you're ready for what she has to offer!" She tries to simply grab the Atlantean by the shoulder as she hovers suddenly behind him, whirling around once and attempting to fling him bodily at the Iron Patriot like some kind of human-sized, fleshy hadouken. "And as for you, 'Princess'." The doppleganger turns a that same malicious, smirking smile on Pyre, even as the original is still trying to get to her feet. "I have /always/ hated you. Ever since I stopped your ship from crashing into Earth, I've just wanted to lock you back up in it and toss it right back into space." Her appearance, her voice, apparently even her memories are all the same as the original Supergirl's! Except the outfit. "So chill out." And then she's breathing that awful, awful artic breath Pyre hates so much. The winds aren't hurricane-force like the other Kryptonians had been letting out just a moment ago, but they are cold enough to form ice crystals in the air! Two Karas. Mend can't fight ONE Kara, let alone TWO Karas. The gunmen are all locked up in their popsicle prisons...and for now, Mend does a quick survey of the area for stray civilians before touching down. Aerial combat isn't something she's comfortable with. Deep breath. Pyre's got Kara's attention. What does she...do now, other than start to sneak towards Karas while she thinks. With the intervention of Tempest the men with the sonic wepaons are neutralized before they can form prolonged damage. Either way, she was ready and so was Lor-Zod for a moment. She cannot blame him for not having her fortitude to dealing with pain. It takes her a brief second to assess the situation, the commander of Elite Black Zero on Krypton, it's her expertise. She surmises none of the Kryptonians, black Kara nor red and blue Kara will be undone by any of those gathered. The pain, therefore, must have come from the nefarious weapons wielded by those humans, and it is they who must pay a price. She heard Lor-Zod's yelp in pain, she felt some of it herself despite not showing it. Now it was her turn. The weapon that is cracking the ice little by little is reduced enough that she swoops down like lightning, and moves in a ballet of martial arts moves, combined with super speed, crashing her heel through the man with the firing weapon, ice and all. With the heroes and potential villain or two occupied with the two Karas, she proceeds to make short work of those who dared defy her. From one frozen man, to the next defreezing one, her arms and legs break limbs, snap and shatter bones. She's a machine when she's angry, and unfortunately for those hapless men, it is neither Kryptonian who won her fury, but them for daring to attack her when they are unworthy of challenging her. (Okay... so here I am... sooo out of my league. There's literally nothing I can... oh hello...) O O o o . . thinks Heather to herself... and ironically, she broadcasts that over the telepathic link because really, she doesn't even know about it much at all. She's never had mindlinks used on her before, and doesn't even know at first that there -is- a link, until other thoughts start running through her head. . . o o O O (Hello? Now batting for... oh skip it..) she adds, amused for a brief moment like in a scene out of the movie, Airplane, and wanting to hear an internal echo. So she just surges into motion, heading for what drew her eye. "Whoa there slugger!" she calls out towards Ursa. "I think you got'em!" She says that as she bends and scoops up one of their dropped weapons. She gives a brief examination, does whatever she thinks she must to set it to max power... aims at the black-clad Supergirl, Kara... or whatnot, and pulls the trigger. She is really just hoping to provoke the Kryptonian, drawing her ire so that others may avoid that fate. . o o O O (That's right. I'm a threat. Come deal with me..) she thinks again, broadcasting again without really meaning to. In the moment that his mother is sizing up the situation and deciding to act, Zenith is recovering from sensory overload, shaking his head a bit as if to clear it and stabalizing his flight, so he doesn't resist the telepathic connection. When he sees as his mother starts tearing into the humans, he quickly looks away, unable to watch but also unable to bring himself to argue with her. Instead, he flies in, trying to position himself between Pyre and evil-Supergirl, trying to protect the former from the icy wind blast. Oh great. This. This is apparently happening. |"Stay calm, it's just the Atlantean."| Tempest could sense the aprehension from... well almost everyone, and even being shut out by one, but hey, he's not really powerful enough to try and force the issue. |"You may know me as Aqualad. Tempest, now. Just thought I'd foster some communication."| As in the one who fought alongside that one teen team a few years ago? |"Try not to resist too hard, since this is really, /really/ hard when you guys don't have gil-"| Agh! When Evil Kara appears behind him faster than he can follow, he attempts to dive forward away from her, but unfortunately, Atlantean super speed on the surface is nothing compared to Kryptonian super speed and he's suddenly gripped on the shoulder. "Handsome, eh?" is pretty much all he manages to get out before he's hurtling through the air, water already surging out of the ocean to try and catch him -- unless he hits the Iron Patriot first. That might hurt. Kaydin tries to shield the woman from the ground as they go hurtling into it for a quarter mile, curling about her. When they stop, he groans as he assesses his damage and the girl's he tried to save. When she tries to get up, he moves over her to help her. "Easy." He says as he tries to help her up but keeps an arm around her to support her. |"Tempest, the girl is safe, but incredibly weakened. Your orders, do I remain and protect her or rejoin the conflict?"|. His sword was dropped when the blow it so it was back with them. The 'evil' Supergirl is clearly not interested in diplomacy, negotiation, or explanation. Most of the other people also ignored Wonder Girl's attempt to get to the bottom of this. She doesn't know how to do the whole mental thing but she tries anyway. |"Okay, hey, I don't know what's going on, but it looks like the one in black is some kind of doppleganger or something of my friend. We need to stop her without killing her, because I don't know if killing her would impact the 'real' Supergirl somehow or not."| When evil-Supergirl started attacking people, and spouting off nasty things to Pyre, Wonder Girl determined her to be a threat that can not be talked down. Whatever her backstory is, she needs to be disabled. Wonder Girl isn't sure if she has the strength to counter Supergirl's invulnerability... But she isn't going to let that stop her. Those people had some special weapons of some kind, didn't they? Maybe they were effective against Kryptonians? She sees Heather going for them and nods approvingly... And then she sees what Ursa has done to the guys in the ice. A moment later, a furious blonde comes flying in at Ursa attempting to punch her in the FACE and throw her at the black-wearing Supergirl in a TOTALLY ORIGINAL COMBAT MANEUVER SHE DIDN'T JUST SEE SUPERGIRL DO only with the addition of a punch (to try to daze the target intended for throwing). "STOP MURDERING PEOPLE!" she yells out during the attempt. "I DON'T KNOW WHO YOU TWO DICKHEADS ARE, BUT YOU DO NOT GET TO GO AROUND KILLING PEOPLE RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!" Seriously, they have enough problems. Cassie's temper is usually under control, but right now she's having a hard time keeping it together. There's too much going on. Too much unexpected. And despite her best attempts to remain reasonable, her strength is... Her strength, not her oratory skills. Seeing the reaction of the black clade Kara makes the Iron Patriot think of Rober Oppenheimer's famous words, "We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remember the line from the Hindu Scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita, Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him he takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.'" As their mind replayed the message the pressed their arm and the device came out. He looked over to a few people then said, "Sorry," the modulated voice did sound remorseful then they pressed the button. With a single push the "The Destoryer of Worlds," clad in Red, White and Blue armor hung in the air. Nothing changed about them. They even pocketed the device as it kept going. A signal would go unheard by most. Nothing would have changed for them. For Kryptonians it would be an entirely different world. Pain would surge through them as a high pitch wail would go through their ears. The box was designed to turn the super hearing against them. To potentially pop eardrums, create deafness, and to disoriente them with so much pain they would be prone. If anyone was telepathically linked to a Kryptonian they would probably feel their pain. To avoid the pain they would have needed to strive a good fifty yards. One person on the field knew the origin of the device quite well. They even volunteered to inadvertently help build it. Seeing the open opportunity Iron Patriot hands opened up and their arms extended. A red glow formed on palm then lanced out toward the Black Clad Kara, "Take the shot!" they screamed in the modulated voice. If they wanted an opening to take down the evil Kryptonians they would need to forget about the good Kryptonian and Lor Zod. At least Ursa's and Kara's rampages were slowed, if not stopped, in this moment. Pyre is not prepared for the speed at which Supergirl moves. She has seen the Kryptonian in action, but her friend was always on her side. Knowing the blonde had that power at her disposal and chose only to employ it for the benefit of others and to protect people was a source of comfort. Now she's worried. She's worried because someone she never thought she'd need to be ABLE to harm is beyond her means to stop and this person is hurting other people while wearing her friend's face. She's not even sure if she can TRY to hurt Supergirl -- 'evil' or not. Then the other-Supergirl says those words to her. Pyre is stunned. The shock and pain is visible in her face. Her red eyes get very wide, and then... Instead of tears, something molten starts to trickle out of her eyes. Something that stops trickling and starts flowing upwards into the air in the form of something not entirely solid, liquid, or gaseous. Then the ice comes, and Lor-Zod is in the way to take the brunt of it, but the fact that this other Supergirl would say those things and then try to hit her with the one thing they BOTH know could kill Pyre easily is too much. The few exposed parts of her skin are scoured by the cold, frost-burned. Her scarf blows out behind her and she squints as she covers her face with both arms. Pyre is hurt. But out of pain comes rage. And out of rage comes a build of up of heat and fire around Pyre so intense that her thermal suit burns up in a matter of seconds and anyone else in her immediate vicinity who isn't really invulnerable may be in danger. Lor-Zod is probably okay. Ish. But Pyre's very body seems to become fire as it streams upwards from her flesh. She GLOWS as her face is twisted in a combination of anger and sorrow. And then a pillar of flame erupts outwards from the fire princess, the heated shockwave that results as it expands in an eyeblink to encompass a 30 foot radius tossing sand and dirt everywhere, incinerating local plant life, and turning sand into glass whether on the ground or in the ear from the sheer heat and pressure. Then she screams out angrily and the flames take on the hue of something hotter than fire. Just for a second. Anti-climactically, before she can do any more damage than what she has just done to anyone unfortunate enough to be close to someone generating flames approaching the temperature of the core of planet Earth, the flames go out in a loud *WHOOSH* as the alien burns up all her oxygen. Drained, she falls out of the air with her eyes rolling up into her head, and towards the ground. The men don't really stand a chance, being frozen and all. It'd be about like shooting blindfolded and hogtied men in the head, and it's child's play to execute a bunch of ne'er-do-wells who are encased in ice. Well, for a Kryptonian, anyway. Their armor is kind of a low-tech reverse-engineering of Kryptonian armor, so it resists easy snapping and forces Ursa to put some muscle and elbow-grease into shattering the normally-easily-fractured bones of the pitiful humans. They try to scream, but the ice prevents much of it from getting out. The breaking armor and ice are much louder. Heather pulls the trigger on the sonic-disrupto ray (or whatever it was called, the men were dead, they can't share that info), which only has one setting: full blast! The directional super-sonic disturbance immediately gets the Bad Kara's attention, causing her to grit her teeth into a pained snarl, reaching up with both hands to cover her ears, and cease her cold attack on Pyre. But when she twists around, glowing red eyes locking onto the super-healer with the sonic gun, she may soon regret her choice of tactic. Supergirl unleashes twin blasts of heat vision, wide-angled, set to take out both Heather AND her weapon. Worse, she knows Heather can heal, but that she can also feel pain, so she simply tries to melt as much of her body as possible and flash-fry her! And this Kara doesn't hold back any of her power, despite this being her 'friend'. "YOU! Think you're so pretty, so perfect, so much better looking than me? I'll make sure NO ONE finds you 'pretty' for a long time!" The original Supergirl gets wobbly to her feet, sending Kaydin a shaky smile of thanks. "Can't, we have to stop her. She's... I-I don't know WHAT she is. But she's as strong as I am, and I don't think she'll hold back!" Kara had no idea what to make of her doppleganger. Alternate dimension twin like Karen? Phantom-Zone copycat? WHO KNOWS!? The ear-splitting shriek of Iron Patriot's armor hits both Kryptonians at about the same time Pyre goes super-nova, probably with enough heat to make Kara's supervision at Heather feel like a mild sunburn. The already-weakened, blue-clad Supergirl hits her knees, clutching her ears as her eyes bug out of her head, blood leaking out from between her ears at the renewed auditory assualt. "STOP STOP STOP MAKE IT STOOOOOP!" As Mend and Kaydin begin to drag her away, she fights them, and even a weakened Kryptonian can put up a fight. But meanwhile her doppleganger is still grabbing her head and looking for the source of that awful, AWFUL noise! It would behoove Iron Patriot to not be Iron Patriot right now. Though half-blinded by Pyre's awesome display (which, unfortunately for the good guys, was not wholly directed at the Supergirl 'clone'), she homes in on the source of her pain, the one in her ears, not her singed skin, like a robot-seeking bat. The original Kara was right, she doesn't hold back. She comes in at top super-speed, flying faster than eyes can follow, and lets loose at an uppercut right at the fellow's chest. Her ears are bleeding, her eyes are blinded, she's angry and hurt, much like, though in different ways than, Pyre was. If it lands, it's a blow hard enough to put Iron Patriot literally into orbit, or perhaps just smash right through that armor. It's likely the first full-forced Kryptonian punch any Kara has ever delivered, uncaring whether there's a living being within it or not. And then she's streaking away at super-sonic speeds, leaving behind prodigious sonic booms and a veritable tsunami of water in her wake as she flees across the ocean to escape that awful, debilitating pain. "All my fault... it's all my fault..." Sure, she can't really hear much right now, probably not even her own whispering, but Kara Zor-El is no longer fighting Mend and Kaydin's attempts to remove her from the immediate vicinity, hanging her head, defeated and dismayed by what may have been released upon the world. Mend frowns a bit, then sets off at a run towards Kaydin. << No. You rejoin the fight. I'll get Kara out of here. I don't have the firepower to take on Kryptonians without dying. >> Pretty simple that, and if she can get Kara back to normal...well. She knows SORT of what the Kryptonian needs. Sort of. Heather was right, it's not just that Ursa "got'em" she absolutely destroyed those men who hurt Kara earlier, and then tried to hurt her, as well as her son. Leaving mangled remains of those unfortunate souls, Ursa's seamless black uniform is now stained with blood. She took note throughout the carnage that her son did not join her when he came to his senses, but does not react on it. Not quite yet. Right now Ursa has a crazy blonde to deal with, and she does it with the same cold efficency she used in dispatching the man. Before Wonder Girl can even reach her, she easily evades the brute attack fueled by anger, and does one better by throwing one of the mangled humans at Wonder Girl, letting her deal with the guilt of potentially having eliminated a human herself, "when you're angry, you make mistakes," she taunts softly. If this were a different setting, she may have taken to playing with Wonder Girl, she enjoys dispatching the ones stricken by anger and fear the most. It would have been a treat, but alas, this is not the time. Especially so when one individual, the Iron Patroit, decides to mark himself as a target of interest. Ursa for all her violence had come her to defend Kara, and has only responded to an attack by the humans. Yet she is being considered an enemy by this Iron Patriot, and she will have to repay in kind. However, it would have to be on a different day, after she's had a chance to learn a little about him. The attack he unleashes puts only one thing on her mind. Lex Luthor was not an ally, but a traitor, and she needs to deal with him before even considering this man in a high tech suit. The sonic attack is ferocious, greater in scope then the weapon of the men she had recently terminated. Ursa's eyes open wide, and she remains on her feet. If Iron Patriot thought Kryptonians were tough because he read about Superman, he now finds that Kryptonians also have special forces, and much like human special forces are beyond measure to normal humans, so it is with Kryptonians. The attack has one major success, Ursa is not looking to engage the Iron Patriot or anyone else, not in this conditions. She's not even looking to help Kara, the one perceived good nor the one perceived bad. Her eyes only lock on her son, whom she knows will find himself incapacitated by this sonic onslaught. While her body strains and her ears bleed, she jets into the air in high speed, breaking the sound barrier, as she snatches Zenith in her arms, flying through Princess Pyre's pillar of flame, and proceeds on a trajectory high into the air. For the time being, the Iron Patriot managed to remove two Kryptonians from the field of combat, and Ursa cares not about the other two. Holding down the trigger, Heather calls out, "Yeah! That's right! Hurts don't it?!" Midwest girl down there is starting to have fun with this. She grins up at Kara until she sees the eyes glow red. "Oh sh.." is all she gets out before her voice turns into incoherent screams. She stops firing and holds the gun up to try to impede the heat vision, but it just explodes in her grip, mutilating her hands. The twin beams of heat drill holes several meters into the ground behind Heather but that is really only because they ripped through her like she was paper. The scream cuts out when she passes out, her body falling to the ground... or really, much of her midsection melted away, and her hair gone, skin burned... and then the heat from the pillar washes over her and she passes out. Somehow, she retained consciousness until that point. As she fades into blackness, she tries, and fails, to lift a hand to give black-clad Kara the finger. And now, the bad news.. she has no idea how to use a mental link, or how -not- to use it. So even when she can't scream physically anymore, the pain and terror of it are washing over the link like a mental cry that just won't stop until she passes out. Those who know to look, can see that even when the heat stops burning her though, the body is trying to repair itself, muscle and tissue growing... visibly. She's out of it for now, but she might just survive this... in the long run. Her clothes? Yeah, they're done. Anyone got a blanket? Zenith doesn't really feel a thing at Kara's cold-breath, and says, "Stop this, pl..." But she's gone, attacking someone else. Before he can help protect them as well, however, there's that sonic blast. He may be incredibly tough, but by Kryptonian standards he's just a child. He cries out in pain again as the sonic blast hits him, and combined with everything coming over the telepathic link, he just drops from the sky... only to be caught by his mother and carried well away from the action. Luckily, it seems Iron Patriot is at least quick enough to move out of the way of the hurtling Tempest and rather than hard metal, Garth crashes into the unnatural wave that curls out of the sea to catch him... then plummets straight through the bottom to land with a thud on the ground. Seriously. Kryptonians, man. They throw like... Like... Kryptonians. He rolls onto his side, then pushes up to his feet, ready to go a few more rounds, only to have crippling pain shoot through his everything. Without a second thought, he drops the telepathic link and the pain dies away immediately, followed by the brief feelings of utter rage directed at Iron Patriot. He may have tried to something about the government flunkie had Evil Kara not beaten him, quite literaly, to the punch. "Okay... Okay..." he looks around, sees the mutalated humans, and grimaces. Honestly, the death of surface dwellers going about trying to kill kryptonian superheroines isn't something he'd necessarily advocate, but he is a soldier. It happens. Just... not usually in such a brutal fashion. There's Heather. Also dead -- probably. Honestly, he doesn't even know anymore. Kaydin's fighting to drag Good Kara from the field, and Pyre's out of it after nearly going supernova while Wonder Girl goes after Ursa and Ursa throws a corpse and leaves. "Don't mean to sound like a downer, but I think this could have gone better..." He sighs, and summons two streams of water to follow him in a jog over to Heather and Pyre -- Are they? Well... He magics the water into some dark colored liquid to preserve some kind of decency and wraps them both in it. He may not be a healer like that witch he met, but he's can at least aid the process along with some magic water. "They... Uh... Well, they might be okay. Given time. I don't really know. I haven't gotten into much healing magic." Kaydin grunts Kara fights him to try and go back to the battlefield but the sonic blast coming causes him to wince as well. Atlanteans have heighted senses of sight and sound so while not as strong to him as it was to others, it still was annoying. He then grunts as he then picks up Kara completely and tries to get her away from here, someplace remote and quiet and hidden....And a swimming pool if Poseidon favors him. Wonder Girl catches the mangled corpse in her arms, and her stomach revolts. Though it's a bit disrespectful to the dead, she reacts reflexively by tossing the dead body away from her and towards the ground. She may have blood all over her, but as pained screams go up over the telepathic link due to Heather being attacked, Wonder Girl dives towards her friend just as an intense pillar of flame and heat erupts around Pyre, blinding Wonder Girl with both the light and the heat that stings her all over. She's not even especially close to the flames, but that intense HEAT is just too much. She arrives too late to help Heather -- as far as she knows Heather's dead. In a panic, Wonder Girl looks for where everyone else is. Pyre is falling out of the air, the 'evil' Supergirl is taking off with loud sonic booms, the murderer is flying away with someone else... Kaydin is trying to haul Supergirl away with Mend, and she just... She doesn't know what to do. She has no idea what she's doing. Cassie thought she was getting experienced as a hero, but her mind is just all over now. The telepathic thing may be gone but everyone is either fleeing or retreating or dead or dying and she just has. No. Idea. At. All. She looks for something to punch. Something to fight. She knows that much, right? Except she didn't fare too great against that lady who threw the dead body at her and then left. Cassie yells wordlessly, frustrated, angry, confused, scared, and just stands aside uselessly while Tempest works to heal her friends. Moving out of the way of a flying atlantean was one thing. Moving out of the way of a flying Kryptonian was another. Barely moving out of the way of the blow a shoulder piece dislocates, flies off, and Patriot spun in the air for several feet before balancing himself out. Across the screen a report of the armor damage flashed. "Divert power to thrusters," flying after the second Supergirl was key. "Spectrial graph, sonic booms," they said and stayed in pursuit. She was bound to get away but at least the Iron Patriot was moving out of the area. And no the device was not turned off so in case anyone had murderous thoughts they were going to have problems extracting them. Pyre is drained, but not injured, and seems to be wearing some combination cloth/metal bikini-armor still, neither of which were so much as singed by the intense flames. But her reaction to the cold as the scorched earth and blackened glass she is lying upon cools in the ocean breeze is to curl up into a ball regardless of her exhaustion. The water may restore some of Pyre's energy, but Heather isn't the only one with a high metabolism, and Pyre has already expended all the energy she'd need to survive without aid. She'll be weak at best until she has not only had time to rest but also eaten. Right now, however, despite the growling of the organic incinerator she has in place of a stomach, despite the weakness and the cold that flood her body, despite the hunger and pain that ravages her body, when she thinks about what happened this day, the things that were said to her... ...She just doesn't feel like eating. Category:Log